10 September 2008
I love to learn how people make homes for themselves almost anywhere. I am in Dalanjargalan soum (try saying that three times quickly). It is a dry, dusty place, which seems to have nothing going for it on the surface other than the railway station. There is another ADRA garden here, a great one. We went into a local store for some food. It was a typical local shop - where the owner arranges for a trip to a bigger urban centre and then brings back a selection of goods for resale. Along one wall were a series of bright plastic health posters. Each window sill was crammed with potted plants, the pots made from the bottom half of big plastic soft drink bottles. The shop owner was growing cherry tomatoes and other small plants. In each pot was a broken egg shell (egg shells are a good source of calcium, and according to Wikipedia are good for growing marijuana). There were two young girls sitting behind the counter. The younger was dressed neatly in a clean dell. She was watching a cartoon VCD dubbed in Mongolian. She had the VCD and TV remotes cradled in her lap. The elder sister was sitting at the counter doing a craft like long stitch. The whole environment felt warm and homey. Outside, a few houses away, there was a snooker table under one street light. The ever-present wind had dropped and the moon was shining brightly. Several kids were still playing pool. I looked up at the clear stars.
As I write this picture me seated in a small room. Five of us are sleeping in this room tonight. When we are all in our sleeping bags there is no spare space on the floor. We are slotted together like a jigsaw. They have promised to serenade me with snores. I have considered sleeping in the car, but the nights are getting colder now. I can feel cold seeping through the window.
Post script: Our driver lay down at about 9:30pm, told a few jokes in Mongolian, giggled and promptly feel asleep and started snoring. His snoring was so bad I tried to drown it out by jamming my ipod headphones into my ears and playing "sleepy" rain forest music....
